Chapter 133: Court Administration Must Be Reformed

Shen Tingyang's residence on Haisha Island could not be called magnificent, but it covered a very large area — a grand courtyard-house layout with one residence and three compounds. Everything was uniformly black-tiled and white-walled, and seen from a distance it was a dark, somber expanse. The front gate was broad and imposing, with a bluestone-paved road outside that stretched all the way to the pier. Rows of hitching posts stood beyond the gate, and stables and storehouses had been built off to the side.

Inside the compound there were many buildings; some were very old and dilapidated, clearly built many years ago. Others were brand new, evidently completed only recently.

Yet all the buildings were plainly decorated, the furnishings were ordinary, and the rooms were very damp — clearly not very comfortable to live in.

The Chongzhen Emperor, Empress Zhou, Empress Zhang, and Consort-Select Li were assigned to the central compound, which was a large two-section courtyard; the outer section served as a temporary court hall, while the inner section was the living quarters of the Chongzhen Emperor and his party. Zhu Cilang and his Grand Marshal's Office of the Army of Pacification moved into the eastern compound, and the accompanying grand secretaries and ministers were crammed into the western compound.

Outside the main residence there were also some attached courtyards, and near the pier a number of shops had been built, all with storefronts in front and living quarters behind; these were now assigned to the civil and military officials who had followed the Chongzhen Emperor and Zhu Cilang.

As for the soldiers of the Hard-Working New Army, they could only pitch tents and live in the open. After several rounds of expansion, the Hard-Working New Army had grown considerably, now organized into a large establishment of three divisions and twelve brigades. Its strength approached twenty thousand! The Tianjin loyalist civilians who had followed the Chongzhen Emperor and Zhu Cilang — including the residents of Wangqingtuo — were also numerous, roughly twenty to thirty thousand. Add to that Shen Tingyang's sailors, the officers and men of the Tianjin Guard naval force, the merchants and residents already at Dagu, and the officials, nobles, and their families who had left Beijing on the sixteenth and seventeenth of the third month.

By the ninth day of the fourth month, the total number of officials, soldiers, and civilians gathered at Dagu had reached as many as fifty or sixty thousand! So many people could not possibly all go to Haisha Island; they had to be split between Haisha Island and Dagu town. Dagu town was already packed full, so many people had no choice but to pitch tents outside the town walls.

And so many people, carrying a great quantity of baggage, horses, and vehicles, plus the five hundred thousand shi of grain stored in the Dagu warehouses, far exceeded the transport capacity of the sand-boat guild and the Tianjin Guard naval force — they could only be shipped out in stages and batches.

Transporting so many people and so much materiel was truly no easy task! In addition, Zhu Cilang still had to arrange for the Right Division of the Hard-Working New Army and Su Guansheng to proceed to Dengzhou, and he also had to worry about Wu Sangui, that wayward second brother-in-law. So after settling in briefly, Zhu Cilang and his Grand Marshal's Office of the Army of Pacification were once again busy.

"Thousand Years, although Haisha Island is safe and secure, it is after all too crude and hardly suitable for the court to remain long."

The man speaking with Zhu Cilang in a bare, almost undecorated study was none other than the current Chief Grand Secretary, Wei Zaode.

He had come to see Zhu Cilang today for one matter — while the traveling court was temporarily lodged at Dagu, how was court administration to be kept running?

In his view, the traveling court was merely making do and holding the situation together. Reform or new policies could be discussed at leisure after they reached Nanjing.

"A month!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "The traveling court will stop here for a month. Chief Grand Secretary, do you know why We intend to remain here for a month?"

"Thousand Years means the great army at Shanhai Pass?"

Zhu Cilang smiled and shook his head. "How much farther is it to Dengzhou? By sea, the round trip is only a day or two. We are staying at Dagu not for Shanhai Pass!"

"Could it be for Beijing?"

Zhu Cilang smiled and shook his head, but did not continue on that point. Instead he changed the subject: "To be frank, We wish to put the court in order here at Dagu."

"Put the court in order?" Wei Zaode frowned. "Does Thousand Years intend to replace the Grand Secretaries and the Six Ministries?"

"The Grand Secretaries will not be replaced!" Zhu Cilang said. "Of the four current Grand Secretaries, not one will be removed, and one more will be added — these are all minor matters."

"Then what are Thousand Years' major matters?"

"There are only two major matters," Zhu Cilang said, extending one finger. "First, the rules by which the court deliberates and administers must be drastically changed! It cannot go on with everyone chattering and anyone speaking, yet no one taking responsibility. That will not do."

Wei Zaode did not quite understand Zhu Cilang's words, because he had never seen what a government more efficient than the Ming court looked like.

But Zhu Cilang knew very well that the present Ming court was a central government of extremely low decision-making and administrative efficiency. Without reform, it could not go on!

And to carry out such sweeping reform, they could not go to Dengzhou, still less to Nanjing. The entire traveling court had to be kept in a state of crisis, so that resistance to reform would be reduced to a minimum.

If they did not reform now, once they reached Nanjing — heh. Zhu Cilang would have to confront an extraordinarily vast bureaucracy that was utterly incapable of accomplishing anything, yet more than capable of ruining everything!

"This subject does not understand," Wei Zaode said.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Let Us put it more simply. In this dynasty, far too many officials may take part in deliberating great military and state affairs, and most of those who speak bear no responsibility and take no part in actual administration. They merely stand by with folded arms and talk, debate out of thin air, do nothing to help, and seek only empty fame! That custom ends here at Dagu!"

Wei Zaode was silent.

Zhu Cilang continued, "The second great matter is that the Censorate must be drastically reformed!"

"The Censorate? The Chief Surveillance Office?" Wei Zaode frowned. "Thousand Years, the remonstrance system of this dynasty was handed down by the ancestors—"

"That too ends here at Dagu!" Zhu Cilang paused. "When the ancestors handed down this system, the realm was already settled. But now we are in troubled times! Troubled times do not need a crowd of pure-stream officials who act on hearsay; troubled times need a Censorate that can get real work done!"

"If these two matters can be accomplished, our Great Ming will be saved, and We will be able to restore the rivers and mountains of the Great Ming."

He looked at Wei Zaode and smiled. "If they cannot be accomplished, We will not leave Dagu. Does the Chief Grand Secretary understand?"

What? If they are not accomplished, we are not allowed to leave? Wei Zaode was startled. This place is dangerous! Who knows when Li Zicheng will strike — that bandit chief uses ankle presses and floggings to extort silver. Is one even to be allowed to live?

"This subject understands!" Wei Zaode said.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Chief Grand Secretary, then convey Our meaning to everyone. As long as the reforms can be accomplished, everyone will soon be able to board ship for Dengzhou."

The traveling palace on Haisha Island, the imperial study.

The Chongzhen Emperor of the Great Ming seemed somewhat agitated, pacing back and forth in the cramped, crude study. He had put on a half-worn yellow everyday robe again; after arriving at Tianjin Guard, he had dug out this everyday robe of the Son of Heaven and put it on, as if to remind everyone that he was the sovereign and father of the Great Ming!

But the ministers who had fled Beijing with Zhu Cilang, or who had paid Zhu Cilang for an edict permitting them to flee, mostly classified themselves as belonging to the Crown Prince's faction.

There was no help for it! Everyone knew that this Chongzhen Emperor could least tolerate treacherous ministers; the ministers he had killed or ordered imprisoned over the years were truly too many to count.

And those ministers who were killed or imprisoned — none of them had opposed Chongzhen's hold on supreme power! Yet the Crown Prince's faction that followed Zhu Cilang, if their offenses were truly reckoned, every one of them deserved beheading!

No one liked beheading, so here at Dagu there were truly very few of the Chongzhen Emperor's trusted confidants left.

But there were not none at all: the former Governor of Tianjin Feng Yuanyang, the Governor of Shuntian Song Quan, the old imperial kinsman Zhou Kui, Imperial Son-in-law and Commandant-Escort Gong Yonggu, Imperial Son-in-law and Commandant-Escort Wan Wei, the Marquis of Xinle Liu Wenbing, and Cao Huachun — these men were now all crammed into this study, standing there, eyes on nose, nose on heart, gazes fixed straight ahead, faces expressionless, all with the bearing of virtuous ministers.

Yet not one of them uttered a word.

The Chongzhen Emperor looked at these loyal ministers who had no ideas to offer, and he was somewhat angered. He snorted heavily: "We are no sovereign of a doomed state, yet the civil and military officials of the whole court are all ministers of a doomed state. Even now, none of you can offer your sovereign and father a single stratagem!"

The ministers being scolded by Chongzhen thought to themselves: Rest assured, Your Majesty, the Great Ming cannot fall at present, because there is a fierce and cunning Crown Prince of the Army of Pacification holding it up.

The Governor of Tianjin, Feng Yuanyang, was advanced in years and in poor health, and was already thinking of retiring. Hearing Chongzhen speak thus, he wished to ask leave on grounds of old age, so he stepped out from the ranks and memorialized: "Your Majesty, this subject is old and decrepit, and truly finds it hard to bear heavy responsibilities."

(End of Chapter)